Crash Expert Torches Prosecution Theory as Defense Rests | Karen Read Trial Day 31

Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield

True Crime

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On Day 31 of the Karen Read trial, defense crash expert Andrew Rentschler takes the stand one final time and dismantles the prosecution’s theory, piece by piece. Prosecutor Hank Brennan fires back in a tense, often combative cross-examination, even drawing a courtroom warning from the judge. Plus: closing arguments are coming Friday. The end is near… and the stakes have never been higher.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, I'm Ashley Banfield and this is Drop Dead Serious.
0:08.8	It was day 31 in the second degree murder trial of Karen Reed.
0:13.4	Trial number two and man, oh man, home stretch is an understatement.
0:20.2	This morning, the courtroom picked right up where it left
0:22.6	off with defense crash expert Andrew Wrenschler back on the stand. And it was a big day.
0:29.5	The cross-examination got heated, my friends, hot, like hot, hot, and the defense rested their
0:35.3	case, too. See what I mean by home stretch? I was not kidding.
0:39.6	We have a lot to talk about, so let's get right into it. The jury was barely in their seats before
0:45.5	the objections just started flying. Defense attorney Alan Jackson opened the day by asking
0:52.2	his crash expert about a PowerPoint presentation that he made,
0:57.2	one that outlined his analysis of what really happened to Boston police officer John O'Keefe.
1:04.7	Alan Jackson tried to explain that the point of Wrenschler's investigation was to evaluate
1:10.6	John O'Keefe's injuries and to test
1:13.7	the prosecution's theory that Karen Reed's Lexus struck John O'Keefe. But special prosecutor
1:21.1	Hank Brennan was not having it. He objected again and again to how the questions were being
1:27.4	worded. And Judge Beverly Canoni
1:30.0	sided with him over and over again, in fact. Within minutes, the courtroom was at sidebar. And when
1:37.8	they came back, the witness, Andrew Wrenchler, did something kind of weird. Like I've never seen this, he decided to take a moment
1:47.0	right in front of the jury to wish his son a happy 10th birthday. I know. It was odd. And let me just
1:56.0	say this. The judge was not impressed. Did not love it. But moving on, the expert walked the jury through his review
2:02.9	of John O'Keefe's injuries, and what he found did not match with the prosecution's theory at all.
2:10.2	He said John O'Keefe didn't have any lacerations on his arm. Just 36 small, superficial scrapes. And that may not sound like a big deal, but
	...

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